On the 24th a continuation of westerly winds* brought us in sight of St. Jago and Bravo, of the Cape de Verd Group; on passing which we got the North-East trade, and, after staying a part of the 10th and 11th at Fayal, where we met Her Majesty’s Steamer Styx, Captain Vidal, who, on parting, gave us three hearty farewell cheers, we did not, in consequence of easterly winds, arrive at Spithead until the 30th day of September, after an absence of upwards of six years.  During this period we only lost two men, and preserved throughout almost the same spars** and boats,*** we left Plymouth with in 1831.  From Portsmouth we proceeded round to Woolwich, where the ship was paid off on the 18th of October, 1843.

(Footnote.  Ships availing themselves of these winds, when, also, the westerly current ceases near the equator, might, by running away to the eastward in them, shorten the passage to either Ascension or St. Helena.)

(**Footnote.  I have already mentioned that the Beagle was fitted with Mr. Snow Harris’s lightning conductors; the fact mentioned in the text is ample proof that they do not weaken even the smallest spars.)

(***Footnote.  It is in justice due to say, that the boats were chiefly built by Mr. Johns, of Plymouth Dockyard.)

TAKE LEAVE OF THE BEAGLE.

After giving the men their certificates, I loitered a short time to indulge in those feelings that naturally arose on taking a final leave of the poor old Beagle at the same place where I first joined her in 1825.  Many events have occurred since my first trip to sea in her:  I have seen her under every variety of circumstances, placed in peculiar situations and fearful positions, from nearly the antarctic to the tropic, cooled by the frigid clime of the extreme of South America, or parched by the heats of North Australia; under every vicissitude, from the grave to the gay, I have struggled along with her; and after wandering together for eighteen years, a fact unprecedented in the service, I naturally parted from her with regret.  Her movements, latterly, have been anxiously watched, and the chances are that her ribs will separate, and that she will perish in the river* where she was first put together.  She has made herself as notorious as during the war did her namesake, that reaped golden opinions from her success in prize-making; while my old friend has extensively contributed to our geographical knowledge.

(Footnote.  The Beagle, now employed in the Preventive Service, is moored in Crouch Creek, near South End.)

THE SURVEYING SERVICE.  CONCLUSION.